Hasan Piker and Cenk Uyghur Banned From Entering the UK

The UK government has now done something useful in the war against Muslim antisemites: it has banned Hasan Piker and Cenk Uyghur from entering the UK to spread their poison. More on this welcome development can be found here.

Britain’s interior ministry cancelled travel authorization for Cenk Uygur, co-host of the YouTube channel The Young Turks, and his nephew Hasan Piker, a left-wing streamer and influencer, ahead of their planned appearances at SXSW London and the University of Oxford. The ministry said their presence “may not be conducive to the public good” without specifically mentioning Israel.

The Home Office justified the ban on Uygur by declaring him a “serious risk to the public order” following his claim that “Israel controls the American government through donations to 94% of Congress.” In a post on X, Uygur called the decision “absolutely Kafkaesque,” writing, “I didn’t get banned for criticizing the UK, but for criticizing Israel.”

Uyghur was banned not for criticizing Israel, but for spouting an antisemitic trope about “Jews controlling governments” through their “money power.”

Piker responded on social media as well, saying the UK had revoked his visa “at the behest of Israel,” adding, “The West is betraying liberal values for a genocidal fascist foreign government.” Last week, Labour MP David Taylor had called for Piker to be prevented from speaking, saying his presence was “not conducive to the public good.” The Jewish organization Community Security Trust had also urged SXSW organizers not to allow the UK to serve as a platform for Piker, citing his “record of promoting rhetoric that includes antisemitic themes.”…

In his response, Piker attributes the revocation of his UK visa to Israel, but he’s wrong. It was not Israel, but a non-Jewish MP, David Taylor, alarmed at Piker’s frenzied and repeated attacks on the Jewish state as a “genocidal fascist foreign government,” who called on the Home Office to revoke Piker’s visa.

The Oxford Union said it was “deeply concerned” by the ban and vowed to explore all options to ensure the discussion takes place, including hosting it online. “The Oxford Union was founded on a simple principle: that ideas should be challenged through debate, not ignored or silenced,” president Arwa Elrayess said.

Would the Oxford Union hold a debate where one side argues that black people are inferior to white people? Or that women should be subservient to men? No, there are subjects that it would not allow to be debated. Piker is not only an antisemite, but an apologist for mass murder, who has said that “America deserved 9/11,” and has called the terror group Hamas “one thousand times better than the state of Israel.” His presence in the UK would be likely to promote that pathological condition we call antisemitism. Documentation of Piker’s antisemitism can be found here. Here is a sampling:

By banning both Piker and Uyghur from entry to the UK, the Home Office has done something right. Would that other countries would follow suit.